Patreon has lost its case against a controversial comedians' patrons after banning him from the platform, and now will be forced to pay significant amounts in legal fees. Tim and Adam discuss the precedent this sets.
Phi Beta Iota: Patreon canceled Michael Cernovich, changed terms of service, withheld funds to creators, ripped off supporters, Lost Tortious Interference law suit, faces immediate bankruptcy, will end this form of creator support,
Owen Benjamin was kicked off of Patreon, because they don’t like him or what he says. But Owen did not fundamentally do business with Patreon. Owen did business with his patrons, and Patreon, in their Terms of Service, explicitly repudiated any responsibility for these individual transactions. This is huge. When Patreon kicked off Owen Benjamin, they weren’t just removing somebody they didn’t like. They were interfering with Owen’s personal business relations with his patrons.
Patreon Terms of Service Change
Patreon, by banning a Creator, disrupts the economic relationship between Creator and Backer. In legal terms this is called tortious interference with a business relationship. Patreon, under California law, must pay the arbitration fees in advance. These fees can be upward of $10,000 per case. If dozens of backers move for individual arbitration against Patreon, you can start doing the math.
ROBERT STEELE: I had a Patreon account, and immediately detected what I considered to be fraud on the Patreon account. They made it almost impossible to cancel the account and I believe they continue to collect funds under false terms for many people that have left them. I wrote the original warning notice to the White House on cyber-security and cyber-integrity in 1994, we finally seem to be at a point where serious attention can be paid to the matter of assuring integrity and continuity in cyber-space.
1994 Sounding the Alarm on Cyber-Security
